The Leadership Group of the newly formed Military Health System Strategic Partnership American College of Surgeons (MHSSPACS) held its inaugural meeting March 31 at the College’s headquarters in Chicago, IL. ACS Executive Director David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS, and Captain Eric Elster, MD, FACS, chair, department of surgery, Uniformed Services University of the Health Services, and U.S. Navy staff transplant surgeon, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD, co-chaired the meeting.

Margaret Knudson, MD, FACS, the new Medical Director for the MHSSPACS, organized the meeting, which was attended by leaders from the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as representatives of key divisions of the ACS that are involved in this new partnership. The group considered four major topics that will be jointly addressed by the partnership, including quality of care in the military health system, education and training in combat care for military surgeons, trauma and combat casualty research, and the military’s Joint Trauma System.

In addition, the group discussed plans for a new military surgical society, called the Excelsior Society, which will meet for the first time at the ACS Clinical Congress in 2015.